Any questions?

Here are a few questions we are often asked by groups who have received a grant from us. If your question isn’t answered here please get in touch with your grants manager who will do their best to help – their phone number will be on any letters or emails they have sent you, or call the Information Team on 020 7727 8522 and we will put you through.

Q: Will our grant expire if we don’t claim it within
a few months? How long will you hold it?

A: We know that it can take some time to raise the full
amount required for a capital project, or to recruit the right person for a new post. We can therefore hold a grant for up to two years; in some situations we can hold it for longer, but you will need to contact your grants manager to discuss this.

If you haven’t requested payment of the grant within a year of the date it was agreed, please send us an update on progress together with your latest annual accounts.

If you have not requested the grant within two years of the date it was approved we will write to you to see if it is still needed, or whether we can reallocate the funding. We will not cancel a grant automatically after two years but will do our best to find out what the situation is and why the grant has not been requested so far.

Q: We haven’t spent this instalment of our grant
in full – do we have to give it back or can we spend it on something extra?

A: If you have only underspent by a small amount – up to 5% of the grant payment – we are happy for you to put the money towards any other charitable area of your work, or towards your reserves. You don’t need to ask our permission to do this.

If you have more than this left over, and you have suggestions as to how you would like to use the unspent portion of the grant, write to your grants manager explaining the situation and outlining how you would like to use the funding. We aim to be as flexible as possible about how you can use our grant, although there may be some situations where we ask you to return the unspent funding to us so that it can be reallocated to another project.

Q: Our grant is going towards a particular salary
and that member of staff has left. How does that
affect the grant?

A: If the postholder changes while we are funding their salary you must let us know when the previous worker left and when the new one joined. Please also tell us the new worker’s name and provide details of their previous experience. If the post is unfilled for more than a month we will generally ‘freeze’ the grant, delaying our next payment for a time equivalent to that for which the post was vacant.

Q: Can a salary grant be used to cover maternity or sickness payments?

A: When Tudor makes a grant towards a salary it is the post rather than the individual that is being funded.

If the member of staff needs to take maternity leave during the period of Tudor’s grant funding the grant will not cover payments made to that member of staff during their maternity leave. Our grant can, however, go towards the cost of maternity cover for the funded post, although you must let us know about this. If you need advice on paying or reclaiming statutory maternity pay go to the HM Revenue and Customs website.

If the member of staff goes on sick leave then our grant can usually be used towards their salary costs for the first four weeks of this period of sick leave. If their sick leave looks likely to extend beyond four weeks please contact your grants manager for advice as our grant can't normally be used to cover the costs of longer-term sick pay. We do need to know if a staff member whose salary our grant is covering is on sick leave, so please talk to your grants manager sooner rather than later. Our grant can go towards the costs of sickness cover for the funded post, although you must let us know about this.

If the post is not filled during the period of maternity leave or sick leave the grant may be frozen. Freezing the grant can enable the post holder to return to carry on the funded work at a later stage.

It is important that you contact your grants manager to discuss your options: you must agree the approach to take, in advance, with them.

Q: Can we ‘change the use’ of the grant you have
given us?

A: When your organisation accepted our offer of a grant, it undertook to ensure that the grant was used for the charitable purpose for which it was agreed. However, we are aware that things can change: perhaps you have received additional funding which also covers things our grant was intended to support, or local circumstances have changed meaning there is now less of a need for a particular project.

We can consider changing the use of a grant after it has been agreed, and will do our best to be flexible. However we won’t automatically approve a change of use - you will need to ‘make the case’ and demonstrate that the new purpose is in line with the intention behind the original grant. We’ll need to receive your request for a change of use in writing, but you might also want to ring your grants manager to discuss your options first. When you write, explain why you are making the request and what you would like the grant to go towards now and include a budget showing how our grant would be used.

Q: We’re thinking about merging with another organisation – can Tudor offer any help or advice?

A: If you’re thinking about merger or a joint venture – however early on in the process you are – please do get in touch with your grants manager. We may be able to offer some advice and support: either directly or by offering a small development grant towards things like initial feasibility explorations between potential merger partners or independent support and facilitation for the merger process. Although we will not always be able to offer this sort of input, please contact your grants manager, on a confidential basis, to discuss the options.

Q: We are merging with another organisation – how will this affect our grant?

A: If you are merging with another organisation please let us know about this as soon as you can. If the post or work that Tudor has been funding is continuing within the new merged organisation (as is usually the case) it is unlikely that your grant will be affected – we will simply transfer it to the new organisation. This will normally apply even in the unusual situation where both merger partners hold grants from Tudor!

Q: Our report is going to be late – should we let
you know?

A: We send out reminder letters a month before your next grant payment is due. If your report is going to be more than a month late please let your grants manager know; there is no need to get in touch if it’s not going to be any later than this.

Q: Can someone from Tudor come to our
AGM/event?

A: The Tudor Trust has quite a small staff team and at any one time we are managing around 1,000 grants across the UK. Although we are happy to receive invitations to your events, it is often not possible for us to attend due to the many other demands on our time.

Q: Do we have to use Tudor’s logo on things like
our leaflets and annual report?

A: We don’t expect you to use our logo when you receive a grant from us. However, if you want to, you can include the Trust’s logo in your annual report, website, project leaflets and temporary displays but we would prefer that you do not use it on your letterhead or other permanent stationery. We can email you a copy of our logo in a range of formats: please contact the Information Team on 020 7727 8522 to request a copy or if you have any questions on the use of our logo.